Dreamers
by fowl68
Summary: "Do you think a man can change?" "Only so far and he'll hate anyone who tries." Post-game.Almost Sheelos.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything!

**Author's Note:** Got the inspiration for this from some fanart I saw. It's one of my favorite pictures of Sheelos, actually. Here's the link to it (no spaces, naturally):

h t t p : / / m e d I a . p h o t o b u c k e t . c o m / i m a g e / s h e l o s % 2 0 t a l e s % 2 0 o f % 2 0 s y m p h o n i a / h o l c a p p a r / S h e e l o s 3 . j p g

-/-/-/-

_A stiff apology is a second insult... The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt. ~G.K. Chesterton_

_-/-/-/-_

He finds her, as he'd known he would, in the highest possible place around. They're in Meltokio, after the rush of mana, color and _air_ that had come with the rejoining of the worlds. Suddenly, everything seemed at once brighter, and yet more subtle. Larger, and yet things still felt so familiar.

She doesn't say anything, though she must surely hear him with that acute hearing of hers, as he comes up behind her. Zelos opens his mouth, wanting to say something clever, wanting to hear her laugh again. But he knows that it won't work. Not this time.

So he takes a seat. Not beside her, as he would have done once upon a memory, but behind her. He doesn't want to see her right now, isn't sure if the words will come out if he's looking right at her. She's always had that effect on him, Sheena has. The effect that his words stumbled and his throat closed; that his heart beat a little faster when he saw her.

He clears his throat and looks around. The sky seems so very wide here, endless and beckoning him to fly among the clouds and the stars. "…Nice weather we're having tonight."

Sheena doesn't respond, simply pulls her knees up to her chest and rests her arms on them. He's sure that her eyes are focused on the horizon rather than the sky.

"Look…I'm not good at these sorts of…things…you know that. And I know that I can give you all the explanations in the world, but it won't be good enough." Because she already knew the _whys _of the matter. She's known from the minute he'd revealed himself as a traitor. "I don't know how to make things right between us, if I can. But I want to."

"If wishes were horses, beggars would ride." Sheena murmured. Her initial anger with him had faded. She can't be angry with him for wanting his freedom, his sister's freedom, but she can't forgive him. Not for betraying them.

"Can we ride?" Zelos asked quietly.

"Do you even know how?"

Zelos chuckled, a bittersweet sound. "I'm learning." There was a time that he didn't know how to dream, how to wish, how to look past the here and now. He'd been trapped as The Chosen for so long, long enough that he'd stopped hoping for a normal life because when the Powers that Be decided it was time for him to go, that was it.

But Sheena, with all her vitality and rebellious feminism, had come stumbling into his life. She was wild-shy, a little awkward and not quite comfortable in her own skin, but she dreamed. They used to sit on rooftops together and she'd come up with absolutely insane stories, theories,_ ideas_. Zelos loved to listen.

After so many years of being with her, being around her, she rubbed off on him a bit and Zelos tentatively toed into the world of What Ifs. It wasn't a great world, but it was a nice one. A better one than the one he lived in.

Then she left for Sylvarant and Zelos found out very quickly that dreams could turn to nightmares as easily as the flip of a coin.

Then he met the others. Lloyd, in particular, was very like Sheena. Stubborn. Strong. Friendly. Dreamers.

Zelos leaned back just enough so that their backs are just barely touching. In truth, it was the ghost of a touch. His hands move unconsciously to toy with the ends of the pink ribbon that wrapped around Sheena's waist.

"…I _am_ sorry, y'know."

"With how things turned out."

"That too. But for…everything I've done that ended up in this."

"But you're not sorry for actually betraying us, are you?"

She knows him so well. "…No." He can't be sorry. He and his sister are free. Finally. After being trapped where they were for nearly all of their lives.

"You hurt us."

"I know." He's not sure what else to say.

Sheena shifted a little and Zelos felt the ribbon in his hands tug and loosen as she did. "…I miss it too."

She said it quietly enough that he almost didn't hear her. At first, he swears he hadn't. But when he chances a glance over his shoulder, she was very determinedly not looking at him.

"The old days?" Zelos asked, just to be sure.

"Yeah. The old days." Sheena echoed.

Zelos wants to say he can change, wants to say that he'll never do a thing like that again, that she can trust him now. But…

_("Can I ask you a question?"_

_Kratos had looked back, face unreadable as always. "That doesn't guarantee an answer."_

_Zelos ignores Kratos' words. The fact that the seraphim had acknowledged Zelos' words meant that he would get some kind of answer. "Do you…I mean, do you think a man can change?"_

_Kratos hadn't answered him right away. When he did, it was slowly and a little halting. "Only so far. And he'll hate anyone who tries to make him.")_

It was the one moment that Zelos had been anything other than coldly civil with the seraphim.

"I don't think I can forgive you." Sheena confessed.

"You don't have to." Zelos was well aware that he deserved no forgiveness, any punishment that was given to him._ (And yet, he knew that if he were told to strip and be whipped until there was no skin left on his back, he wouldn't hesitate, wouldn't question, as long as the punishment came with the promise that Sheena would forgive him)_

"…Think we can go back to those days?" Something, anything, like those days when they'd explored Meltokio and spent almost every day in each other's company.

"I think we can try."

Yes, Sheena had made a dreamer out of him. But perhaps that wasn't such a terrible thing.

-/-/-

_Dreams are answers to questions we haven't yet figured out how to ask. ~X-Files_


End file.
